


A Brief History of the Jedi Order: Introduction

by Popchop



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: 1600 words on the history of the jedi, I DUNNO REFERENCING IS FUN???, Other, why did i do this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2017-09-20
Packaged: 2019-01-01 01:56:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12146139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Popchop/pseuds/Popchop
Summary: Written by Prof. Rig Hyperblast, 26 ABY.





	A Brief History of the Jedi Order: Introduction

To be very clear at the start of this book: I intend to cover the Jedi as a religious order, and especially to cover their historical role as peace-keepers and diplomats during the Late Republic, when it had already passed its cultural and political peak. What I do not intend to do – as some of my colleagues do – is to deny that their training gave them some extraordinary skills. I believe that these have been well documented, and we have Master Skywalker to thank for his recent demonstration to the University of Hosnian Prime of some Jedi abilities (1). Although these may in some accounts be exaggerated, that they existed is undeniable, and I have attempted where possible to sort legend from fact.

The origin of the Jedi Order is – by this point in time – more myth then fact. Their first appearance in the record is approximately 25,000 BBY(2), when they were first brought into the Galactic Republic, and since then the fates of the two have been indelibly intertwined. Readers familiar with the wars of the early Republic will recall the Jedi's dramatic intervention in the Tionese War. Prior to this the Jedi had been one of a large number of force-centred cults that had flourished in the Galactic Centre – and had indeed split several times before this, and would do so again afterwards – but it proved itself capable of ending the war when, at a desperate stage, it took command of the Republic's forces and crushed the Tionese resistance. Above the ruined planet, the Jedi struck a fateful deal with the representatives of the Senate: in return for the abolition of the Republican military arm, the Order itself would protect the Republic. Understand that this was not an abolition of all military forces within the Republic – on the contrary, it was largely in name only, as fleets continued to patrol both systems and sectors. On paper, however, these fleets were owned and run by individual planets and alliances within the Republic, rather then controlled centrally, something which would become of vital importance to Late Republican politics.

Over the next few thousand years, the Jedi would prove to be kingmakers – and kingbreakers – as when they overthrew the corrupt Contispex dynasty, complete with a temporary suspension of the galactic senate – not dissimilar to their apparent attempt to overthrow Palpatine at the conclusion of the Clone Wars, something which I will deal with in chapter ten. Their split into Sith and Jedi occurred during this period, leading to the Great Hyperspace War, the Old Sith Wars, and the Great Sith War (one wishes that historians were a little more creative in their naming of these conflicts!), which saw the relocation of the Orders heart from Ossus to Coruscant. This was the order at its most powerful and magnificent.

[image of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, as seen in its final form shortly before the beginning of the Clone Wars]

The Mandalorian Wars were the first blow to the ascendant Jedi Order, and in retrospect can be seen as the start of the rot which ended the Jedi. Their initial refusal to step in to help the Republic, after the bloodiness of the Great Sith War lead to a great deal of distrust – which was amplified after a large number of young Jedi, known as Revanchists after their leader Revan, chose to take part in the war, leading directly to the Jedi Civil War. This weakened the Jedi enough that the Sith Triumvirate took advantage of the chaos to assault the Jedi Order in the First Jedi Purge. Led by Darth Nihilus, the Triumvirate managed to wipe out all but a handful of Jedi, and destroyed both their archives and the temple on Coruscant. Although the Jedi Order was rebuilt, and subsequently perpetrated genocide on the Sith down to knowledge of their name (3)(4), it had left its golden age far behind.

The new Order – though renouncing militarism – performed sweeping reforms, closing all training facilities outside of Coruscant and barring entry to adults, as well as forcing renouncement of all ties to the galaxy outside the order.

Although the next millennium of the Jedi Order and the Republic could be seen as a golden age – and at the time, it certainly was perceived as such – the seeds of its destruction were sown from the start. The restriction of the Jedi ranks to children, largely taken from their homes at a young age, led to a severe contraction of their numbers even as they were called upon to do more peace-keeping and diplomacy. This also pushed adult force sensitives towards other cults and religious groups, from the more benevolent Brotherhood of the Beatific Countenance and the Guardians of the Whills and early precursors of the Church of the Force to the far less benevolent. We will dive more into the Jedi rhetoric around the light and dark sides of the force in Chapter Six, but the Jedi's neglect of adult force sensitives certainly pushed more than one individual towards their long thought gone rivals, the Sith, and their “dark side”.

This also lead to them directing a larger proportion of young force-sensitives who were perceived as not being powerful or disciplined enough – or simply not lucky enough to have a Jedi Master choose them from amongst the younglings – towards the service corps. Although this was certainly a boon to the galaxy as a whole, as the record of the service corps shows, it further weakened the numbers of the Order (5).

Their choice to restrict Jedi from attachments also lead to them losing a not insignificant number of Jedi to said attachments, whether that was romantic or familial. Perhaps the best known case is the Clone Wars General Anakin Skywalker, who had an infamous affair with Senator Amidala of Naboo – although she denied it publicly, most historians (and the gossip holos at the time) draw the conclusion that he was the father of her child. Had the Jedi Order persisted, and indeed had either of them survived Order 66, it would likely have forced a break. His own mentor, Obi Wan Kenobi, was romantically linked with Duchess Satine of Mandalore (6), and reportedly came close to leaving the order. There is also an ongoing argument over to what degree affinity for the force is genetic, and to what extent the Jedi were actively wiping out their own recruitment base (7).

All of this meant that by the time of the Clone Wars, the Jedi order had hugely declined in numbers at the same time as their responsibilities grew larger. Over the last century of their existence, Padawans became Knights younger and younger and referrals to the Service Corps grew less, even as overall recruitment fell. Perhaps they could have come back from this, but the stress of the Clone Wars is what finally finished them, even before the concerted attempt to destroy the order. Their use of clone soldiers who were bred to obedience and loyalty is morally abhorrent, and the positioning of twelve or thirteen year old Padawans as Generals is a mark of their desperation and dwindling numbers.

Untangling the muddy history of the Clone Wars and its causes is a task which has driven many historians to the brink, but in this volume we will consider the sometimes controversial claim that the Chancellor - later Emperor - Palpatine deliberately pushed the Republic into war with the Separatists (who had many legitimate grievances) rather than pursuing peace in order to use the war to crush any resistance to his grab for power. Some conclusions can therefore be drawn from this about the Jedi's response to his power grab – and their attempt to conduct a coup of their own.

The Great Jedi Purge of 19 ABY destroyed the remaining Jedi, demolished many of their temples, and over the next two decades would see all trace of Jedi wiped from the galaxy, just as they had attempted to do to the Sith. Although this volume is primarily focused on the Order as a whole, we will track the fate of surviving Jedi, most of whom were hunted down by the Emperor's enforcer Darth Vader. This was the fate of Obi Wan Kenobi, who died in 0 ABY on board the Death Star, and – as far as can be ascertained, as none have surfaced in recent years – the last Jedi of the Old Republic, Yoda, died in 4 ABY, and with him the Order passed from the galaxy.

The final chapters will trace the rise of the New Order, and the author has had the privilege of interviewing Master Luke Skywalker and his young – and not so young – pupils, including his own nephew Ben Organa, son of the famous Generals Organa and Han Solo. Whether the New Order has learned from the lessons of Jedi history is a question that I shall leave for the reader to determine.

(1) [embedded recording of a young Master Luke Skywalker demonstrating his ability to lift objects with the force, including the author]

(2) Lyntel'Luroon. 6 ABY. “Notes on an Ossian Temple”. Collected Notes of an Adventurer. pp. 103-160.

(3) Zap Quarkrunner, 20 ABY, “Genocide and the Jedi: The Force Cult Strikes Back”, Journal of Whill Studies 18, pp. 27-30

(4) Obviously they were ultimately unsuccessful, but it means that what was clear to the Jedi of a thousand galactic years past is largely opaque to the modern historian, as the record tends to go silent whenever the Sith appear – the author had some difficulties recreating the events of the Civil War and the first Purge, and even Revan's gender (if they had one) is unclear in the surviving records.

(5) Locke Amadis, 10 BBY, “The Jedi Service Corps: A History”, Coruscant, Menuk Publishing

(6) Jessica Enada, 25 BBY. “Failing Out: Discourse Around Jedi Romance”, Coruscant, Scama and Wint.

(7) For a good summary of the arguments, see Lucas, 20 BBY “The Great Midichlorian Debate”, Hosnian Prime, Morin Press

**Author's Note:**

> there's not going to be any other chapters, this is just for fun I am not writing a whole book on the history of the jedi the wookiepedia page is exhausting enough


End file.
